Thursday, May 9, 2013

Farewell Sir Alex

As a Manchester United fan, I look back on the numbing shock of the sudden end of Sir Alex Ferguson's 26 year reign.

Aside from the Queen, Sir Alex Ferguson has been the only
constant during my life. I have lived through 12 England managers, nine Italian
Prime Ministers, five British Prime Ministers, four US Presidents, four
Archbishops of Canterbury, three Popes, but only one manager of Manchester
United Football Club. On a more personal level, he's been at the helm of the club for almost as long as my elder brother has been alive, and that guy's old. He can remember when the Tories last won an election.

I and millions of other United supporters are going into
uncharted territory. We know that we are hated. No matter what any of
us do, we will be despised. One of the most treasured compliments I have ever
received was from a Liverpool supporting friend of mine who said: “You’re the
only United fan I like.” The roots of this antagonism are many and varied, but
one of them is undoubtedly Sir Alex Ferguson.

If we are frank, Sir Alex was what made us different from
other clubs, not just because of his success, but because of his longevity and
durability. Since his appointment in 1986, Real Madrid have had 24 managers,
Inter Milan have had 19, Chelsea 18, Bayern Munich and Juventus 14 and AC Milan
13. The managerial merry-go-round was something that happened to other clubs.

A trophy-less season was no disaster: Sir Alex would set it
right. Three seasons without a Premier League title (a difficulty that brings
whole new meaning to the phrase “first world problems”) was troubling, but we
knew Sir Alex would set it right. Our biggest player was threatening to leave:
Sir Alex would set it right. With perhaps the exception of the continental
challenge of the supreme Barcelona side, there was no problem to which Sir Alex
did not have the answer. In terms of longevity, Arsenal have their own version
of Ferguson in Arsène Wenger, and despite having now been trophy-less for eight
seasons, they still say “In Arsène We Trust”. It wasn’t trust with Sir Alex: it
was blind but justified faith.

We have known that this day has been coming, and we all know
that we’ll never see anything like him again. There will not be another era of
13 league titles in 21 years, and when you have become accustomed to such
incredible success, the comedown from the high is going to be difficult. In
fact, Sir Alex’s retirement is nothing short of terrifying, and everybody knows
it. The news hadn’t been known for a few minutes before friends started telling
me that United are doomed to plummet, and the final twist in the Matt Busby
comparisons came home to roost: not too long after that great man’s retirement,
we were relegated to the second tier. In this modern era, it strikes me as
unlikely that a club of such resources as United could descend so low and so
quickly again, but a new era is upon us. We have lost the object of our
unquestioning faith, and there is no replacement.

But, we have always known this was going to come, and we
always knew this age wouldn’t last. We have been beyond blessed by a genius and
now it is for us to know what it is to be like other clubs. That sounds arrogant and it probably is, but there can be no denying that Ferguson’s United
has been unlike any other era for any club in the history of English football. He and his reign have been genuinely exceptional, and he will be missed by many of his rivals too, as the competition was so greatly valued. Indeed, for
many fans of football, when next season comes, it will be a very strange beast.
What will English football be like without its Godfather?

At the end of it all, there’s but one thing for this United
fan to say: thank you Sir Alex.